ARMED MAORI YOUTH TAKES TO BUSH

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 47, 19 November 1941, Page 10

ARMED MAORI YOUTH TAKES TO BUSH

Sought For Several Days

ARRESTED WITH WOUND

IN SIDE

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, November 18. Armed with a shotgun and cartridges, which he is alleged to have stolen from a house in Kaikorai Valley on Friday last, a Ifi-year-old Maori vouth took to the bush in the vicinity of Fraser’s Gully, and, after causing some apprehension among residents ot the district, was captured late tins afternoon. When apprehended lie was suffering from a flesh wound on the left si'de, and it is suggested from the nature of the injury that when faced with arrest he maj- have attempted to take his own life. He was admitted to hospital. When the theft of the gun and cartridges was reported, steps were at once taken to trace the culprit, aud though the youth was seen on two occasions, actual contact was not made with him till Monday evening, when Detective M. Brown discovered him hiding in a shed. Knowing that the youth was armed, Detective Brown went to summon assistance, but during his absence the lad escaped and made off into the bush again. A police party then took up the search, which was continued today, when Superintendent P. J ; O’Hara and Inspector W. E. Packer took charge of the operations. The bush in the vicinity of Fraser’s Gully was thoroughly combed, but it wijs not till shortly after 4 p.m. that the fugitive was sighted. He was then in a thick patch of gorse at the Burnside end of the gully, and Sergeant S. Davenport and Constables G. Claridge, W. Mather and G. Dwan .made in that direction. Constable Dwan separated from the party and, taking another route, was first to come up with the youth. Other members of the party, when about 12 yards away from Constable Dwan and the youth, beard a report and, on reaching the spot, found the fugitive in the custody of the constable and bleeding from a wound in the side. A discharged shotgun was lying beside him. Those members of the police party who were armed were carrying rifles of small calibre, and since the fugitive’s wound was obviously inflicted by a shotgun, it would appear that when he found capture inevitable, he attempted to shoot himself. The youth was taken to hospital in an ambulance, and will in due course appear before the Children's Court.